


Insomnia

by BerryFable



Category: The Tunnels Series - Roderick Gordon & Brian Williams
Genre: Family Bonding, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Hugging, Insomnia, Short & Sweet, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 08:13:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14733255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BerryFable/pseuds/BerryFable
Summary: During a bout of insomnia, Elliott sits on the steps pondering her plight and her father’s return. She isn’t sure where things are going to end up but Elliott is hoping for a happy ending.





	Insomnia

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like these two deserved more moments in the series.

The three of them were sitting there so silently as they poured over the schematics. In a day’s time many of the group would be dead, very few asked to be involved in the conflict. But every last one of the men on Parry’s estate was willing.  
Elliott watched them through tired eyes, she took in the balding of Parry’s head, the furrow across Drake’s brow and the permanent air of stoicism her father held as consequence of being a Styx. Parry shuffled through the papers rapidly obviously growing more frustrated with each passing moment, finally, he stood up and walked away from the table mumbling about needing a drink.

Then there were two.

“Can we help you, Elliott?”

Elliott shook herself out of her half slumber at the sound of her father’s voice, Drake glanced back at her in mild surprise. Elliott was annoyed, she had thought she was being stealthy but of course, Eddie had noticed her, he was a Styx.

A full-blooded one.

“No,” Elliott said. “I was just watching.”

Drake nodded understandingly sleep was hard to come, insomnia wasn’t anything new. Drake turned back to the papers pouring over them with a concentrated eye, after a moment Eddie joined him.  
Elliott tilted her head back staring up at the ceiling, above them Will and Chester had turned in for the night she could almost hear their snores, Stephanie was wandering around the estate likely trying to get a cell phone signal, even in the midst of chaos she still missed her friends. The others, Parry’s men that is, were working tirelessly to prepare the vehicles for their upcoming assault on the Styx, it was something that plagued Elliott nightly.  
Not the prospect of her friends dying in battle, that was scary but she knew loss was a part of living it was the reason they were going up against the Styx, because of their unorthodox mating rituals and all the gore that came along with it, Elliott was terrified that she might become one of them, what would her friends do then?

Would they abandon her?

Run tests on her?

Or kill her?

Privately Elliott hoped it was the latter she wouldn’t want to live like that, fueled by a primal instinct bent on destroying humanity.

Sighing quietly Elliott leaned against the banister and focused her attention on less cringe worthy thoughts. She was happy to be out of the deeps, in the light of the sun where there was running water and oh so soft sweaters instead of rough cardigans and boots that gave her sores on her feet, for the first time in her life Elliott felt girly as silly as that sounded. Her best friends were safe, terror struck, but for the time being, they were safe, Will even got his mum back and Eddie had brought back Chester’s it was a sweet reunion, one that Elliott quietly envied, things seemed to be falling into place for her friends almost like a fairytale.

Elliott chided herself quietly, of course, they had suffered losses as well, Dr. Burrows was dead, as was Bartleby, Chester had endured unspeakable torture in the colony and at the hands of Martha not to mention the little trick Eddie had pulled on him, they both deserved some happiness sprinkled their way. Elliott should have been happy and she was but she also felt a burning grief that nearly overshadowed that joy and dulled it significantly, Elliott had been hoping for a happy reunion herself.

With her mother.

Elliott had heard no word about Molly since she left the colony, no random mention, no wandering renegade even Eddie didn’t know where she was.

Or if she was even alive.

With the tragedies going on in the colony Elliott was beginning to doubt she would ever see her mother again. With the way things were going would her mother even want to see her? Elliott wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer, she rubbed her back absentmindedly brushing against the bandage that wrapped around her chest, protecting the stitches on her shoulder blades. With her hopes shattered Elliott added yet another cause to her insomnia, she could be turning into a monster, her mother was gone, her back had been mutilated without her permission, apparently Danforth didn’t know the meaning of “having a little look,” but in Elliott’s book it didn’t mean wielding a scalpel with deadly precision and cutting to the bone, despite that the women around her seemed to think she should be happy.

Because Eddie was back.

Her father was back.

Celia thought it was wonderful even if she held her own misgivings about the Styx, she seemed to think that having a connection with her biological father would do her good.   
Stephanie was projecting, she desperately wanted to see her own parents now and seemed to think Elliot, Will, and Chester were the “luckiest” kids ever, Elliott had to tell her several times that was not the case.

At all.

The boys were split on the matter, Will was aloof not that Elliott blamed him but there was something else there that she couldn’t place. Chester had handled the revelation of who used the Darklight on him very well and seemed content to have the team’s “personal Styx” around again he seemed certain it would give them a tactical advantage, which was likely true.  
And Drake was more concerned about surviving than what type of relationship Elliott formed with her father, she had asked him about it once or twice since Eddie arrived, his response had amounted to “It’s your call,” leaving Elliott to deal with her conflicting emotions alone.

Grudgingly Elliott had to admit she was relieved to know Eddie was alive but that’s about as far as she was willing to go. She had spent the majority of her childhood thinking he was dead, she clung to the language he had taught her, while she was in the deeps Elliott had recited every word, every rule of the language she could remember so she wouldn’t forget, it was the only part of her Styx ancestry she embraced with open arms.

Because it had reminded her of him, it still did. Before she found Drake, that language had brought her invaluable comfort and scared off quite a few would be attackers, she would always associate those close calls with her father, not Drake but Eddie.

That was both good and bad, Elliott credited her father for getting her out of those many sticky situations if only spiritually, but she also remembered the times his language failed her abandoning her to the filth of the world just like he had. Back then Elliott blamed death, now she didn’t know who to blame, she knew why he left her and his mother, but she still found herself cursing him at night as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Why hadn’t he taken them with him?

Of course if he had done that Elliott would never have met Drake or Chester and Will, but she knew the phrase “you can’t miss what you’ve never known,” very well and while she wouldn’t change the present even if she had the chance Elliott couldn’t help but wonder why Eddie hadn’t had the foresight to prevent the tragedy that befell his little family.

Leaning against the railing Elliott let her arm dangle through, she briefly worried that Colly would wander by and scratch it but shrugged the thought off, Elliott’s reflexes were fast enough to avoid that, she sighed lowly, a little louder than the last time and propped her chin up with her free hand, eventually she would have to go to sleep she would need the energy for whatever plan Drake and Eddie cooked up, Elliott rolled her eyes at the prospect.

Life on topsoil was beginning to turn her into a moody teenager.

Elliott closed her eyes trying to work up the energy to drag herself upstairs, her head nodded gently and when she bolted back up she found herself staring at a watery image of the room, a few cats trailed by waving their tails oddly. Something shook her gently and Elliott saw black, startled she opened her eyes finding herself in a crystal clear version of the room. Elliott hated those dreams, the ones that tricked her into thinking she was still in the waking world performing the same action she had been when she awoke, she glanced up groggily and found herself staring into Eddie’s face, it was emotionless as usual and Elliott figured she was probably blocking the staircase and he wanted her to move, she glanced at the table Drake was gone.

Eddie seemed to know what she was thinking and looked at the table briefly himself before turning to her with loosely clasped hands and an expression of disinterest.

“Everyone is headed to sleep but you Elliott,”

“I was sleeping,” Elliott grumbled.

“Improperly,” Eddie said with a shrug.

He looked at her expectantly when she didn’t move Eddie took a seat next to her on the steps, most people wouldn’t notice the hesitance in his movements, but Elliott did and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. Rolling her eyes again Elliott propped her head back up and examined the sitting room, the table was clean, no more papers littered its surface, there was a faint smell of alcohol in the air that left a sour taste in her mouth.

“Your mother was also fond of sleeping in odd places,” Eddie said out of the blue.

Elliott snorted and halfway glanced at him, that was not what she’d expected to come out of his mouth.

“Oh really?” She asked a dryness in her voice.

“Yes, she grew out of it though,” Eddie said.

Any information about her mother was welcome in Elliott’s eyes, she would never hear them from Molly’s own mouth and she realized at that moment there was only one other person alive who could give it to her, and Elliott was looking at him.

“When?”

“Shortly after you were born,” 

That was an era Elliott was painfully unfamiliar with, she didn’t know the hows and the whys of her parents’ relationship, she didn’t know how it formed, persisted or why they had decided to keep her when they knew it carried a death sentence but Elliott wanted to.

“Da-” Elliott trailed off, she was at lost of what to call him anymore before the deeps it was dad, papa, baba. Now all of those titles sounded childish, unfitting of a military-minded Styx with more deaths to his name than the number of days she’d lived and she wasn’t fully comfortable with calling him by his first name, or nickname as it was, even though Eddie claimed he didn’t mind, that was a Styx practice and Elliott was no Styx. “How did you guys manage that?”

Eddie looked at her questioningly, Elliott sighed kneading her hands nervously.

“Manage to hide me when I was born?” She amended. “I know my mom hid her pregnancy but what about after?”

Eddie frowned thoughtfully.

“With much difficulty. There were a few lies of course, about your paternity,” He said. “Molly had to move a few times to escape suspicion.”

“It didn’t work,” Elliott said lowly, remembering the day she fled the colony to protect her mother, she had been so young, so naive she had thought the colony was bad but the deeps had taught her the meaning of cruelty.

“No it didn’t,” Eddie said his voice was monotone. “Not for long.”

Elliott considered that their attempts of hiding her had failed they should have known there was no hope of carrying on the charade especially not with Eddie involved.

“Why did you keep me?”

“The alternative was never an option,”

Sometimes Elliott wished it had been, it would have spared her a life of pain but it would have robbed her of the moments of joy she had now. Her past stung like no other, but like Drake had told her years ago, that layer of her was dead she had nothing but new days to look forward to, the past was behind her. By sparing her, Elliott’s parents had dropped her into a world of turmoil, pain but also love. She had a united front of friends now who supported her through thick and thin even with the news of her possibly entering the phase they hadn’t left her. Molly was gone and Eddie was back, darkening the step of her doorway so to speak.

He had left her.

But he came back.

In a time of terror and uncertainty, there was no time to be holding onto grievances justified or not. If Elliott was any more awake she would have slapped herself, but in her state of half sleep Elliott reached over and wrapped her arms around him, he stiffened for a moment then relaxed and returned the embrace, awkwardly since Styx didn’t hug but it was genuine. She hadn’t hugged him in a long time, in fact, Elliott couldn’t remember a time they did, not even she was little. Of course, he had picked her up here and there, but never a full out hug, he had been a limiter at the time it wasn’t in his nature. The hug was uncomfortable at first, heavy and laden with emotional baggage on both sides, but the longer she stayed in his arms the more she realized how much she’d missed him detached persona and all, their relationship wasn’t perfect. No, not at all, but as long as they both were still breathing there was hope of something better.

Elliott had gotten her happy reunion.


End file.
